Welcome back to There's Stories Everywhere and the pop up episode: Vetting ideas. Let's be realistic, if you are anything like me, story fiend, and I assume you are, there are more ideas in your brain than you have any idea what to do with. On any given day, I have a dozen or more things pop in and say hi, I'm here, ready for my close up and I go woah NOPE full stop get in line because I already have a bunch of ideas who have done the same thing from the day before and the day before that and the day before that, you get the process.
However, if you've got all these ideas: how do you decide who comes next? Case in point, I just finished writing the third of the Sisters novels. That was a major accomplishment for me. It is not the first time I've written an entire trilogy for essentially giggles, but it's the first time I've completed the entire thing before publishing the first one. That officially clears my plate for what should come next which is...pulls out trusty idea folder....any of these. Ugh. I've got entire series baking somewhere inside my brain, but heck if I can figure out what I'm writing from project to project.
This is where vetting your ideas comes in. I could, pretty literally given how I type, start hammering away at any of the stories I have upstairs in the archives of my brain. However, as a writer with a limited amount of time, I need projects I'm going to be able to see through to completion and not things just to pass the time.
So which ideas make the cut? Here's a few things to consider:
Does it have a beginning and an end? I believe it is writer Craig Martelle I got the idea of writing the beginning and the ending of each piece before I start hammering out the middle. Or it might have been Chris Fox. It was a guy, his name starts with a C.
What about the main character? Can I see them clearly and do I know how they ended up in the situation which begins the book? In the Sisters novels, I knew exactly how the two of them got into the mess they're in and why they hate each other. That's enough to see some sparks fly.
Does the idea engage me enough that I'm still thinking about it when I'm doing something else? This might be the single most important thing, at least in my mind, for starting a project. If it isn't at least a little bit consuming, I will find something else to do. I got this idea from Rachel Aaron of 2k to 10k.
With those thoughts in mind, you can see your way toward sorting the what comes next pile.
Well, Story Fiends, that's its for this episode of There's Stories Everywhere. Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Feel free to leave me a note at my email alledria@alledriahurt.com or on twitter at ourladyofashes. Interested in seeing some exclusive content: check out my patreon at www.patreon.com/alledriahurt.
